Melania Trump to be 1st foreign-born US First Lady since 1820s

Melania, a Slovenian former model, was born in 1970 in communist Yugoslavia.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures to supporters as he leaves the stage with his wife Melania . (AP Photo)

With her husband Donald Trump triumphing in the US presidential polls, Melania Trump was set to become the first foreign-born First Lady of the US in almost two centuries. 46-year-old Melania will be the first foreign-born First Lady since Louisa Adams — the wife of John Quincy Adams, the sixth US president (1825-29). Louisa was born in London to an English mother and an American father who served as US consul, according to the White House. Till date, Louisa was the only First Lady to be born outside the United States.

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Melania, a Slovenian former model, was born in 1970 in communist Yugoslavia. She is the daughter of Viktor Knavs, a car and motorcycle dealer and a member of the Slovenian Communist Party, and Amalija Knvas, according to media reports.

Melania began her modeling career when she was 16, and at the age of 18 signed with a modeling agency in Milan, Italy. Melania has her own jewellery and skin care line and speaks five languages– Slovenian, Serbian, English, French and German.

She met Trump at a Fashion Week party in New York in September 1998, when he was separated from his second wife Marla Marples. They were engaged in 2004, and were married in a church ceremony in Florida the following year.

In March 2006, she gave birth to their son Barron. Melania got her Green Card in 2001 after moving to the US five years earlier and became a US citizen in 2006, a year after her marriage.

She has insisted that she is not shy about giving her husband political advice, despite avoiding the limelight for much of the presidential campaign. In an interview with CNN, she said, “I give him my opinions, many, many times.”

“I don’t agree with everything he says, but, you know, that is normal. I’m my own person, I tell him what I think. And I think that’s very important in a relationship,” she said.

Melania had made headlines in July after she was accused of plagiarising parts of a speech made by Michelle Obama in 2008. She had stood by Trump after video footage emerged of his boasting about groping women.

Melania is also stepmother to Donald Jr, 38, Ivanka, 34, Eric, 32, from Trump’s first marriage to Ivana, and Tiffany, 22, from his marriage to Marla Maples. It was a heart-break for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who was hoping to become the first woman president of the US, as the 70-year-old business tycoon edged past her in a see-saw battle.